How to Locate a Missing iPhone from Any Apple Device

Recently, my mother-in-law told me how she lost her iPhone while she and my father-in-law were away from home. She hit a snag realizing she couldn’t remember the password to help locate her missing phone.

She had written it miles away from home and knew enough to go home to look up her password, then log into her iCloud account and click the “Find My” icon.

There is a much easier way to turn on Find My iPhone to locate a missing device faster by following these tips. The key here is to prepare in advance.

If you spend a lot of time with a trusted friend or family member, follow these steps in case you lose the iPhone later.

1) Grab your trusted friend or family member’s iPhone and open the “Find My” app. This application is installed on all iPhones.

2) Select “Me” from the options at the bottom of the screen (the last icon in the bottom row)

3) Click on the “Me” line and drag it up to reveal the entire options panel. Tap the “Help a Friend” text link at the very bottom of the page

4) After clicking on “Help a friend”, click on the small blue text that says “Use another Apple ID”. Sign in to iCloud using your own Apple ID username and password. Your Apple ID is the same one you used to initially set up your phone. You usually need this ID to download apps to your phone.

5) After entering your password, you will notice a prompt at the bottom of your screen to save the username and password to your friend or family member’s phone. Go ahead and save it on your friend/family member’s phone. By doing this, you are preparing that other device to be able to quickly access the “Find My” function so that you can attempt to recover your phone.

6) After entering the username and password, you will be able to select the lost device and perform various tasks. Once you have selected the device you want to locate, you can do the following:

• Play sound: This will play a sound on your lost device. You should know that if your iPhone is dead or disconnected from cellular Wi-Fi or the Internet, it will not play any sound until it reconnects.
• Lost mode: Once selected, select “Enable” or “Enable”. You will be prompted to enter your contact information to be displayed on your missing device. You can also enter your own message asking the finder to contact you. Then make sure to select “Enable”
• Erase iPhone: This should be a last resort option as it cannot be undone. Select the device you want, and then you can click “Erase this device”. Note that if your phone is backed up to iCloud, you can restore this information to a new iPhone later. And if you were lucky enough to be covered by the AppleCare+ option with theft and loss, you shouldn’t wipe your device. Instead, file a claim for an iPhone replacement here.

7) After completing this test, you can sign out of the iCloud account on your trusted friend or family member’s account.

8) Now, using your own phone, repeat steps 1-8, but this time enter your trusted friend or family member’s information into your phone.

9) After completing the above steps, take a test.

• Pick up your trusted friend or family member’s phone and repeat steps 1-3.
• This time, after clicking “help a friend”, because you have already entered your information into your trusted friend or family member’s phone, when it’s time to enter your name username and password, you will be prompted at the bottom of the screen to use passwords stored in your iCloud Keychain.
• The default will be the iPhone owner account. Be sure to select the “wrench” icon at the bottom right of the screen. It will then present a menu of stored usernames and passwords. Select your login details that you just saved earlier and login now.

By following the steps above, if any of you were to lose their phone, you know what to do and you don’t have to search for login details.

If you are alone, follow these steps to find your iPhone

1) Ask if someone will let you borrow their iPhone to use their “Find My” app

2) Select “Me” from the options at the bottom of the screen (the last icon in the bottom row)

3) Tap the “Help a Friend” text link at the very bottom of the page

4) Sign in to iCloud using your own Apple ID. If you can’t remember, my suggestion is to keep a piece of paper in your wallet with this information that you can easily retrieve should this scenario occur.

5) Once connected you should be able to see where your phone is and ping it

6) Make sure to log out of the phone you borrowed.

How to find your iPhone using your Apple Watch

One of the great features of the Apple Watch is that you can find your iPhone. Here’s how.

1) Swipe up on your Apple Watch screen. You will see this screen:

2) Do you see the second row icon that looks like a phone with vibrations on either side? Click on it. When you do this, you should hear a ping sound from your phone.

3) Keep pressing this button until the ping gets stronger and you find your phone.

The advice above was a game-changer for my in-laws. So much so, I was hearing these pings throughout the day. To learn how to make other technologies findable when they disappear, search for “lost” on CyberGuy.com.